The Real Story Behind Trump’s Cheering Muslims 9/11 Fever Dream

You’ve probably seen this firestorm which has erupted about Donald Trump’s claim that he watched thousands of Muslim residents in North Jersey celebrating as the Twin Towers fell fourteen years ago. We just published a fascinating piece on it. Needless to say, nothing remotely like that actually happened. And since it didn’t happen, Donald Trump definitely didn’t see it. Neither did Ben Carson, who also claimed that he saw the video today. (It’s frankly amazing that the whole GOP primary race is now dominated by a demonstrably absurd claim.) But what’s really interesting is that it’s yet another case where Trump has reached into a subterranean stew of urban legend, rumors and conspiracy theories that have been bubbling along for years and forced them into the mainstream dialog. There were rumors in the days and weeks after 9/11 that something like that has happened. Here are the origins of some of those rumors, the genealogy, if you will, of Donald Trump’s latest nonsense.